Missing
by Meghan Thalia Jackson
Summary: Annabeth Chase moves to New York away from home and her family. Everything seems to be going great until girls from her highschool start disapearing... No one can find the culprit of the kidnappings, and Annabeth wonders if she is next. AU Percebeth along with other minor couples. T for violence and mild swearing.


Missing Prologue

A lone teenage girl walked briskly down the dark streets of Manhattan. She was heading home after a busy day of work at the local coffee shop. The full moon shone brightly overhead, outlining the fresh snow on the ground. A shudder passed through the girl's body from the cold, and she pulled her warm leather jacket tighter around her as it did so.

She was just a fragile young girl; just passing off as a teen by the way she looked. She had curly brown hair that caressed her dark-skinned face, accenting her gold eyes, making them shimmer in the moonlight. She was 13 or 14, too young to be fending for herself in the tough world, but she did so anyways. After her mother's passing, she had no one to take care of her, so she took care of herself. She earned enough money with her after school job at the coffee shop to pay for bills and other necessities, like food and clothes. She was shocked that they even let her have the job, she was so young, but the owners of the shop were old family friends, so they took pity on her. Not that she wanted their pity, she thought she could do without it, but a job was a job, and she needed the money.

The only person in the world who cared about her was her boyfriend, and she loved him dearly. He was two years older than her, but that wasn't the issue, all that mattered was that he cared about her. He was there whenever she needed him, which was a lot, though he didn't mind at all. Shaking her head to clear the thoughts of her boyfriend, she picked up her walking pace; wanting to get to her apartment and out of the cold, but also she wanted to get off of the dangerous streets of New York.

New York wasn't exactly the safest place to be in, and it didn't help that it was getting really late. Stuck in her thoughts of getting home she didn't hear the sound of footsteps in the snow, from about twenty feet away. But she noticed the loud crash of metal trash cans falling over on themselves.

*CRASH*

She froze completely, her whole body stiffening at the sound. The hairs on the back of her neck began to rise, sending shivers down her spine. She glanced around warily, but found the street deserted. Deciding that the coast was clear, she continued on to her apartment, but even faster than before.

*CRASH*

Another pile of trash cans fell over; putting her on edge. There was no wind blowing on that dark New York street, so wind wasn't the cause, but maybe someone knocked them over. And they were most likely following her…

Coming to this conclusion, she broke into a full sprint, glancing behind herself every so often. She couldn't see her pursuer, but the pounds of his footsteps were as clear as day.

Focusing on her escape, she pushed herself even harder, and willed her body to go even faster. She was already tiring and gasping for air, but she couldn't lose hope, she had to make it out of there alive.

Thinking of the shortcut through the alleyway to her apartment, she dashed into an alley, thinking she finally had a chance to escape, to make it home safe, but she only ran into a dead end. The girl cursed under her breath. This is it; she thought to herself, this really is the end. She turned around to the opening of the alley to see who really was chasing after her, holding her breath as she did so.

What she saw didn't surprise her. A dark outline of a man was visible at the end of the alley. She couldn't see any of his facial features though; the light from the moon was blocked by the buildings on each side of the alley. The man took a step closer to her, and pulled out what looked like a dart gun. She stiffened at the sight of the weapon. He raised the gun, pointed it at her, and pulled the trigger.

The bullet was too quick for her to react. The next thing she knows was that there was a sharp pain in her shoulder. She looked down at it, expecting a bloody wound, but she only found a small dart with a sharp needle on the end of it. She reached up and pulled it out of her shoulder, but it was already too late. The poison had already reached her bloodstream; the poison was already rushing through her body.

The poison was fast acting, too. Because the next thing she knew that she was on the ground, looking up at the light-polluted New York sky. Becoming really drowsy all of the sudden, she realized that she had lost. The strange man had won. And now she was most likely going to die.

Giving up her, she started to close her eyes. She saw the man take out a piece of paper and a pen, and saw him make the motion of crossing something off. Before she drifted off into unconsciousness, she thought of the other girls in New York, and wondered if this happened to them, too. Maybe she was one of many girls this man has taken, and what their fates turned out to be.

She finished closing her eyes and her last thought lingered on her mind as she drifted off into unconsciousness. It was of her boyfriend. I love you, Frank...


End file.
